Parents' homework: Find perfect teacher for kids

But principals warn efforts may backfire

Tomi Hall did what she could to lobby for the best teachers for her two children, making her case this spring in letters to the principal.

Then all she could do was wait for news of their classroom assignments -- and it's been excruciating.

The Aurora mom knows her efforts carry no guarantees. One year her son didn't get the teacher Hall had hoped for, and he struggled for months with one whose relaxed style came across to him as uncaring.

"Granted, I know it's just kindergarten," said Hall, 39. "But ... a teacher can make or break you."

In the next few weeks, many families will rip open notification letters or trek to school to see class lists posted on the front door. For parents accustomed to directing nearly every aspect of their child's early learning it can be difficult to have little voice in teacher selection -- a decision they view as critical. Some spend hours crafting the perfect letter or meet with the principal to make an argument.

Principals, meanwhile, struggle to create balanced classrooms while juggling individual requests. They say they want input but find it increasingly necessary to discourage parents from asking for a specific teacher. Administrators don't want the selection process to be a popularity contest -- in part because what makes a teacher popular may have nothing to do with a particular child's educational needs.

"I'm bright enough to realize parents talk at soccer fields and baseball fields, but you have to realize your experience with Teacher A may be very different than someone else's [experience with] Teacher A," said Scott Meek, a new principal at Northbrook Junior High School who is making classroom assignments this summer for 600 students with the help of an office display board.

He asks parents to focus their input on the student and his or her learning style and trust the school to make the right match.

Some students also recognize that certain teachers bring out the best in them.

"I need one of those strict kinds of teacher," said Hall's daughter Tori, 12, who is entering 7th grade. "When I get a not-so-strict teacher, I think they don't really care about me. I really don't want a bad teacher. I'll get lower grades."

When Chaya Fish, 30, of West Rogers Park taught at a private school in New York, she said, it was obvious who the "in" teachers were. She said she automatically joined them after the principal's son landed in her classroom.

"It was ridiculous," said Fish. "The other teacher was probably better than me. It was how you dressed, how you talked" that often determined parental favor.

Teachers said the most vocal parents often get their way so that all parties involved can avoid a difficult school year. But educators warn that parents who get what they wish for may be sorry afterward.

"A lot of times when people orchestrate who they think their child is best suited for, they find they made a mistake," said Mark Friedman, superintendent for Libertyville Elementary School District 70.

"I have many parents say later, 'I don't know why I did this. It isn't working out this year.'"

Friedman said he assures parents their comments will be considered but never guarantees a specific teacher.

In fact, he tells them that if they do request a teacher and later regret that choice, "you have no one to blame but yourself."

Some parents said they've learned their lesson about trying to guess which teacher would be best.

Jamie Thompson said she was initially concerned when her daughter was assigned to a strict 1st-grade teacher. She was aware other parents had lobbied for a different person, who had a more casual style.

"At the end, it turned out that the other class was asking, 'Why isn't my child learning that?'" said Thompson, 36, of Arlington Heights. "That's why I don't want to interfere too much."

Yet parents have different reasons for requesting classes, and some have nothing to do with the teacher, said Michelle Van Every, 36, of Deerfield.

She and other mothers once requested that their children not be placed in a classroom with a specific boy -- not because of him, but to avoid his mother, who had created problems in the past, she said.

"We didn't want to cross paths with her," said Van Every, who added that the school complied with their request. "We didn't want to have to volunteer with her at a class party."

Each district follows its own procedure for teacher selection. Some begin as early as April or May, officials said. Many ask parents to complete a form about their child's strengths and weaknesses.

Typically, teachers have some say in the process by deciding early on which students should be separated or kept together, on the basis of academics, personalities and learning styles. The principal draws up the final class lists, often after meeting with parents or reviewing special requests, officials said.